The story
Alan Brooke declined Winston Churchill's offer of the appointment to head Middle East Command, telling the Prime Minister that there would be no time to reorganise the Imperial General Staff and that he had no knowledge of desert warfare. Secretly he confided in his diary that he felt he would serve better by remaining in his present post in order to exercise some control over the Prime Minister's wilder schemes and, also, to prevent Claude Auchinleck from thinking that he had come out on purpose to work his way into the latter's shoes
There's more to discover
You have arrived at just one small part of Back to Normandy — a personal project dedicated to preserving stories, images, music and memories of the Second World War.
Every record is a doorway to a larger story. Explore Back to Normandy to discover more, or visit Fred Vogels' personal website to learn about the person and the projects behind it.